Asdorftalbahn

Churches (Sieg) - Freudenberg
Route number :	2882
Course book section (DB) :	361
Route length:	13.5 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from Betzdorf 0.0 Churches (victory) after victories 0.322 victory Church hut Wehbach bathing establishment Wehbach Au 3.085 Wehbach 4,570 Junkernthal Christelay Eicherhof Fischbacherhütte 7,820 Niederfischbach Niederfischbach East 10,800 Oberasdorf Asdorf pond 13.5 43.6 Freudenberg (Siegen district) to Finnentrop

The Asdorftalbahn was a 14 km long, single-track, non-electrified railway line from Kirchen in the Altenkirchen district in Rhineland-Palatinate to Freudenberg in the Siegen-Wittgenstein district in North Rhine-Westphalia .

Route description

Immediately after exiting the Kirchen train station, the Sieg was crossed on a stone arch bridge. Shortly afterwards, the connection to the Arnold Jung locomotive factory was passed. From there the route led north through mountainous terrain. There were not only an unusually large number of train stations and stops along the route, but also numerous other connection points that were served by freight traffic. In Freudenberg, the railway line went over to the Finnentrop – Freudenberg railway line .

history

Part of the former Niederfischbach station, now the railway museum

The Kirchen– Wehbach section was opened on June 1, 1887, the Wehbach – Freudenberg section on August 15, 1888.

In 1975, passenger trains on the Betzdorf- Freudenberg route ran on the route, some of which were connected to Olpe or Finnentrop . Passenger traffic only took place on weekdays. The trains took around 32 minutes for the Kirchen – Freudenberg route. Uerdingen rail buses usually drove . Previously, steam locomotives had been used to operate the train; the last official run of a train moved in this way took place in the Niederfischbach section on January 5, 1976. After the cessation of passenger traffic on May 28, 1983, the line was operated as a siding in freight traffic until 1994 . On November 4, 1997, the Federal Railway Authority approved the closure, which took place on December 14, 1997. In the meantime, the tracks have been dismantled, apart from a remnant in Niederfischbacher Bahnhof.

The route and tunnel of the extension of the Asdorftalbahn towards Olpe as a cycle path

In the years after the official closure, a cycle path was laid on the route of the Asdorftalbahn, which, with one interruption, stretches for around 20 km from Kirchen to the former Wildenburg train station north of Freudenberg. The city itself can no longer be crossed in this way because the cuts in this area were filled in and the dams were removed. In the further course towards Olpe, the cycle path is signposted via roads; the district of Olpe has decided against using the railway line for this purpose.

A discount grocery store has now moved into the former hall of the Arnold Jung locomotive factory in Jungenthal . Some station buildings on the route are still standing, for example in Wehbach.

Footnotes

1. ↑ http://www.deutsches-kursbuch.de/3_96.htmKursbuch  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) German Reich Summer 1939
2. ↑ Cultural Association Pro Loco Niederfischbach eV: 1560-2010. 450 years of Niederfischbach market rights. A chronicle . 2010, p. 88.
3. ↑ Martin Krauss: Development of the Railway Infrastructure 1997/98, in: Bahn-Report 2/1999, p. 4–7, here: p. 6.

Web links

• Asdorftalbahn interest group. Retrieved September 16, 2014 . 
• Lok or Lidl - on the trail of the Asdorftalbahn. Turntable Online, accessed January 17, 2010 . 
• Comparison of pictures of Freudenberg train station, then and now. Turntable Online, accessed February 5, 2010 . 
• A journey through time from Siegen to the Asdorftalbahn (12B.). Turntable Online, accessed July 19, 2014 . 
• Contemporary history: Once upon a time ... memory of the discontinuation of the local rail transport between Olpe and Kirchen on May 28, 1983. Turntable Online, accessed July 19, 2014 .